2

Conceptualizing Public Policy

Michael Howlett and Ben Cashore

Defining public policy and the need for

comparative research

Policy-making involves both a technical and political process of articu

lating and matching actors' goals and means. Policies are thus actions
which contain goal(s) and the means to achieve them, however well or
poorly identified, justified, articulated and formulated. Probably the
best-known, simple and short definition of public policy has been
offered by Thomas Dye, 'anything a government chooses to do or not to
do' (Dye, 1972: 2).While many organizations and actors create policies
to which their members must adhere, we focus on 'public' policies made
by governments that affect and influence every member of a nation-state
or a subnational jurisdiction. The actions' we are concerned with in this
case are government decisions to act, or not to act, to change or maintain
some aspect of the status quo (Birkland, 2001: ch. 1).
Dye's definition specifies clearly that the primary agent of public policy
making is a government, rather than private business decisions, deci
sions by charitable organizations, interest groups, or other social groups.
Although these might be important actors with some role in governmental
policy-making processes, governments enjoy a special status in public
policy-making due to their unique ability to make authoritative decisions
on behalf of citizens; that is, decisions backed up by the potential for
sanctions for transgressors in the event of non-compliance. Of course,
the activities of non-governmental actors may, and very often do, influ
ence governments' policy decisions, and governments will sometimes
leave the implementation or some other aspect of policy-making to
non-governmental organizations (NGOs). But governments maintain
control over whether, when and how other actors may be involved.

17

I. Engeli et al. (eds.), Comparative Policy Studies

O Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limitcd 2014
18 Comparative Policy Studies

Thus, for example, how the medical profession interprets the causes of
lung cancer and the solutions it proposes for prevention and cure may
have a bearing on what a government eventually does about such a prob
lem in terms of health-care policy. However, the profession's proposed
solution to the problem is not itself a public policy; only measures that
a government actually adopts or endorses - such as a ban on the sale or
use of tobacco - actually constitute public policy.
Second, as Dye notes, public policy is, at its simplest, a choice made by
government to undertake some course of action. Dye highlights the fact
that publicpolicy-making involves a fundamental choice on the part of
governments to do something or to do nothing with respect to a problem
and that this decision is nade by government officials, be they elected
or appointed politicians, judges or administrators. Thus a 'negative' or
'non-decision', or a government's decision to do nothing and simply
maintain the current course of action or status quo (Crenson, 1971;
Smith, 1979), is just as much a policy decision as a choice to alter it.
Such 'negative' decisions, however, like more 'positive' ones, must be
deliberate, such as when a government decides not to increase taxes or
declines to make additional funds available for arts, health care or some
other policy area. The fact we have the freedom to paint the interiors of
our homes in colours of our choice, for example, does not mean that
this is a public policy, because the government never deliberately
decided not to restrict our options in this area.
Third, and closely related to this, Dye's definition also highlights
the fact that a public policy is a conscious choice of a government.
That is, government actions and decisions very often involve unintended
consequences, such as when an effort to regulate tobacco consumption
or some other vice results in the activity 'going underground' and
operating illegally as a 'black' market. Unless this subsequent activity
or consequence was specifically anticipated and intended by government
(such as occurs when governments increase gasoline taxes to discourage
automobile use and thus indirectly promote the use of public transit),
the unintended consequences are not public policy but merely its
unexpected by-product, which may sometimes be beneficial and
sometimes not.
While Dye's three points are central to understanding that public
policies emerge as the result of governmental decision-making pro
cesses, it is less clear how such decisions are arrived at or implemented.
Other more complex definitions, such as that put forward by Jenkins
(1978), offer a more precise conceptualization of public policy which
also addresses these aspects of the subject. Here policy is defined as 'a set
 Michael Howlett and Ben Cashore 19

of interrelated decisions taken by a political actor or group of actors

concerning the selection of goals and the means of achieving them
within a specified situation where those decisions should, in principle,
be within the power of those actors to achieve'.
This definition is helpful in specifying the content of a policy decision,
as being composed of the 'selection of goals and means' as noted above,
although this says nothing about the actual selection process. Viewing
policy as the pursuit of conscious goals nevertheless raises the signifi
cance for policy-making of the ideas and knowledge held by policy
actors about policy goals and the tools or techniques used to achieve
them, since these shape their understanding of policy problems and the
'appropriateness' of potential solutions to them.
Moreover, Jenkins' definition is also helpful in clarifying some of the
implicit components of Dye's definition, which could be construed as
limiting policy-making to a single choice: opportunity and result.
Jenkins' definition instead presents policy-making as a dynamic process
and explicitly acknowledges that it is usually the result of a set of inter
related decisions' that cumulatively contribute to an outcome rather
than a single decision. Thus, a health policy, for example, consists of a
series of decisions - about building health facilities, certifying personnel
and treatment, and financing health-care provision, among many other
related items - often taken over a lengthy period of time (Tuohy, 1999).
This also highlights the complexity of the nature of the actors involved
in policy-making as these various interrelated decisions are often made
by different individuals and agencies within government, such as a
Department of Health as well as Ministries of Finance or Social Welfare,
and by various divisions and sections within them, and also can involve
a much larger set of non-state actors than often assumed, resulting in a
much more complex policy-making process than a quick reading of
Dye's definition might at first suggest.
Jenkins also improves upon Dye's definition by adding the idea that a
government's capacity to implement its decisions is a significant compo
nent of public policy and a major consideration affecting the types of
action that government will consider. This recognizes the limitations on
a government's ability to act that can constrain the range of options
considered in particular decision-making circumstances and contribute
to the success or lack of success of their efforts. Agovernment's choice of
a policy may be limited, for instance, by the presence or lack of financial,
personnel or informational resources, by international treaty obligations
or by domestic resistance to certain options, all affecting what kinds
of actions are considered 'effective', 'feasible' and 'appropriate' in dealing
20 Comparative Policy Studies

with an issue (Huitt, 1968; Meltsner, 1972; Majone, 1975; May, 2005). Thus,
for example, we will not understand health policy in many countries
without realizing the powerful opposition that the medical profession
can mount against any government's effort to control health-care costs
which might reduce the profession's income (Alford, 1972) or without
taking into account the kinds of financial resources governments have
at their disposal in providing health care and/or paying doctors, nurses
and other health-care providers for their services. Similarly, understanding
domestic government actions increasingly requires detailed awareness
of the limits placed upon them, and the opportunities provided to them,
by international agreements, treaties, and conventions (Doern et al.,
1996; Milner and Keohane, 1996).

Specifying the constituent elements of public policy

As this definitional discussion suggests, public policies are complex entities
made up of a number of constituent parts, since they exist as combina
tions of goals and means put together and implemented by a variety of
authoritative policy actors interacting within an environment of multiple
actors and organizations over both time and space.
Understanding how policy-making processes work, and with what
results, can be undertaken at the domestic or international levels; and
analyses in the policy sciences are often undertaken in this fashion.
However, increasingly, comparative studies of processes and outcomes
across different sectors - such as health policy or environmental or
industrial policy - as well as across different nations are called for and
have been undertaken in the effort to generate better descriptions of
processes and identify the factors which influence them. An example of
a path-breaking effort to specify exactly what these constituent parts
entail and how they can be put together in an empirically and conceptu
ally rich fashion which draws on comparative analysis can be found in
Peter Halls' work (1989, 1993) comparing the development of economic
policies in western countries. This work distinguished between three
basic elements or components of public polices: more or less abstract or
general policy goals, the more concrete policy instruments used toimple
ment them and the even more specific operational settings or calibrations
used when these instruments are deployed.
Although Hall himself suggested that only these three different com
ponents existed, the distinction he drew within the three different
levels' of specificity of goals and means - from 'abstract' to 'concrete'
and 'specific' means it is possible to discern as many as six elements
that go into makinga public policy (see Table 2.1) (Liefferink, 2006).!
 Michael Howlett and Ben Cashore 21
policy harvesting) in used?
levelsmandatory
measures on-the the or
Specific
on-the-ground ways higher
of designated
size
of
about zones, is
requirements specific
instrument
vs. standards)
guidelines
or
voluntary
regulatory
specific of
tions riparian
sustainable
levels
of of use
designations
the
the considera the
Calibrations subsidies,
are stream-bed are the
Settingsground optimal
What Whatwhich (e.g.
(e.g.
of
operationalization species
jobs) orpubliC
formally increasing
habitat,
harvesting tools
different
or processing are
utilized?
wilderness of incentives,
1993) types
policy
Programme-level
aim
address?
to create specific of
(1989,Content
Policy
Mechanisms
instruments
does saving
Objectives use taxenterprises)
to the as
Hall What levels What
(e-g. (e.g.such
following
use or
components general
oftypes guide theinstruments,
implementation
abstraction
Higl-level govern
ideas economiC
protection,
policyenvironmental
norms
for
Instrument
logic preferences
development? What preferences?
development) general suasion)
moral
(2007).
policy coercive
measure.
GoalsWhat (e.g. (e.g. Howlett
of of
taxonomy each
and
ens
Policy Policy
means of
Cashore
examples
aims
or or
tools
modified
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contain
focus
Policy Modified
A
1l2. Cells
Table Note:Source:
22 Comparatiw Policy Studies

Using this insight, public policies and public policy-making can be

seen to revolve around the process of articulating and matching policy
goals with preferred policy means at all three levels: abstract (general or
conceptual), programme (concrete) and on-the-ground (settings). Thus,
for example, in an area such as criminal justice policy, policy-making
involves both consideration of general abstract policy goals (like reducing
crime) and conceptual means (better policing), as well as programme
level objectives (such as reducing violent or gun-related crime) and
mechanisms (by increasing the number of local police stations in high
crime areas), and also the settings and calibrations of policy tools (such
as reducing violent crime by S0 per cent over five years and, in doing so,
doubling the number and frequency of police patrols in affected areas).

Describing how policy ismade: The policy cycle model

Comparative studies of policy-making often focus on one or two of
these elements of policy-making, but accurate depictions of policy pro
cesses and outcomes require investigation and analysis of all elements
across these three levels and of the manner in which both goals and
means are articulated (Bannink and Hoogenboom, 2007; Kuhner, 2007).
Works in this vein have developed several key insights into policy
making processes and behaviour which inform contemporary compara
tive policy studies. One is the finding that policy processes generally
unfold as a set of interrelated stages through which deliberations con
cerning some issue or problem flow in a more or less sequential fashion
from being an 'input' to government deliberations to being an 'output'
or subject of government action. The sequence of stages through which
this decision-making activity operates is often referred to as the 'policy
cycle' (Jann and Wegrich, 2007), an idea first broached in the work of
Harold Lasswell (1956), one of the central pioneers and promoters of
what he termed 'the policy science' (Farr et al., 2006). Lasswell (1971)
divided the policy process into seven stages, which, in his view, described
not only how public policies were actually made but also how they
should be made.
In Lasswell's construct, the policy process began with intelligence
gathering, that is, the collection, processing and dissemination of infor
mation for those who participate in decision-making. It then would
move to the promotion of particular options for addressing the problem
by those involved in making the decision. In the third stage, the decision
makers would prescribe a course of action. In the fourth stage, the prescribed
course of action would be invoked alongside a set of sanctions to penalize
those who fail to comply with these prescriptions. The policy would then
 Michael Howlett and Ben Cashore 23

be applied by the courts and the bureaucracy and run its course until it
was terminated or cancelled. Finally, the results of the policy would be
appraised or evaluated against the original aims and goals.
This way of thinking about policy-making as a staged process of problem
solving was highly influential in the development of the policy sciences
(deLeon, 1999) and formed the basis for further work on the subject
(Lyden et al., 1968; Brewer, 1974; Simmons et al., 1974; Anderson,1975;
Jones, 1984). Through comparative studies of policy-making processes in
many sectors and jurisdictions, a simpler, more parsimonious version of
the policy cycle emerged which more clearly linked the stages of public
policy-making with the logic of applied decision-making raised by Dye
and others (Brewer and deLeon 1983; Hupe and Hill, 2006). The five
stages in applied problem-solving and the corresponding stages in the
policy process are depicted in Table 2.2.
In this model, agenda setting refers to the process by which problems
come to the atterntion of governments; policy formulation refers to how
policy options are formulated within government; decision-making is the
process by which governments adopt a particular course of action or non
action; policy implementation relates to how governments put policies into
effect; and policy evaluation refers to the processes by which the results of
policies are monitored by both state and societal actors, the outcome of
which may be a re-conceptualization of policy problems and solutions.
Much comparative policy study has focussed on detailing the operation
of particular stages of the cycle; for example, examining through com
parative case study techniques the nature of agenda setting dynamics in
the United States and Europe, or comparing the roles played by specific
actors - like the media - in each. Other studies examined the manner in
which different stages interacted - such as feedback-like processes involv
ing policy evaluation and agenda setting when a negative evaluation
of a policy leads to its revision in subsequent rounds of policy-making
(Pierson, 1993). These studies have shed a great deal of light on the nature
of policy-making processes and highlighted the use of comparative

Table 2.2 Five stages of the policy cycle and their relationship to applied
problem-solving

Applied problem-solving Stages in policy cycle

1. Problem recognition 1. Agenda setting
2. Proposal of solution 2. Policy formulation
3. Choice of solution 3. Decision-making
4. Putting solution into effect 4. Policy implementation
5. Monitoring results 5. Policy evaluation
24 Comparatiw Policy Studies

research as a technique to better understand the kinds of actors and

dynamics at work in different countries andsectors as policy-making
processes unfold.

Who makes policy: Policy actors

The cycle or process model of public policy-making useful not only
because of the way it separates a series of tasks conducted in the process
of public policy-making into distinct phenomena which can be studied
separately. It also helps clarify the different, but interactive, roles played
at each point in the process by specific kinds of policy actors, the institu
tions in which they operate and the importance of the ideas they hold
about both policy content and processes in determining what kinds of
policy goals and means are considered and implemented (Sobeck, 2003).
Comparative study has helped show, for example, how at the agenda
setting stage virtually any (and all) policy actors can be involved in
decrying problems and demanding government action. These policy
actors - whether all, many or few - can be termed the policy universe.
At the next stage, formulation, however, research has shown how only a
subset of the policy universe - the policy subsystem- is typically involved
in discussing options to deal with problems recognized as requiring some
government action. This subsystem is composed only of those actors
with sufficient knowledge of a problem area, or a resource at stake, to
allow them to participate in the process of developing alternative and
feasible courses of action to address the issues raised at the agenda setting
stage. When a decision is being taken to adopt one or more, or none, of
these options and implement it, the number of actors is reduced even
further, to only the subset of the policy subsystem composed of authorita
tive government decision-makers, whether these are elected or appointed
officials, judges or bureaucrats. Once implementation begins, however,
the number of actors increases once again to the relevant subsystem and
then, finally, with the evaluation of the results of that implementation,
expands once again to encompass the entire policy universe. This public
policy 'hourglass' configuration of actors is set out in Table 2.3 below.
Table 2.3 The policy cycle-actor hourglass
Stages in policy cycle Key actors involved

1. Agenda setting 1. Policy universe

2. Policy formulation 2. Policy subsystem
3. Decision-making 3. Authoritative government decision-makers
4. Policy implementation 4. Policy subsystem
5. Policy evaluation S. Policy universe
 Michael Howlett and Ben Cashore 25

Understanding how these different actors interact in policy processes in

order to produce specific kinds of policy outcomes has been a major sub
ject of contemporary comparative policy research. Different patterns of
policy outcomes have been linked to the patterns of behaviour of different
policy actors at each stage of the policy process and these, in turn, have
been linked to factors such as the kinds of institutional structures found
in different countries and sectors that condition how policy initiatives
emerge and how policy advice is generated and deployed (Aberbach and
Rockman, 1989; Bennett and McPhail, 1992; Bevir and Rhodes, 2001;
Peled, 2002; Bevir et al., 2003; Howlett and Lindquist, 2004).
Recent comparative studies of policy formulation processes in New
Zealand, Israel, Canada and Australia, for example, have developed the
idea that government decision-makers sit at the centre of a complex web
of policy advisors who are key players in affecting how demands made
at the agenda setting stage of the policy process are articulated into
specific policy options or alternatives for decision-makers to consider
(Maley, 2000; Peled, 2002; Dobuzinskis et al., 2007; Eichbaum and Shaw,
2007). These include both 'traditional' political advisors in government
as well as non-governmental actors in NGOS, think tanks and other
similar organizations, as well as less formal or professional forms of
advice from colleagues, relatives and members of the public.
Given its reliance on existing institutional configurations, the exact
configuration of an advisory system varies not only temporally, but also
spatially, by jurisdiction, especially by nation-state and, somewhat less
so, by policy sector. That is, the personal and professional components
of the policy advice supply system, along with their internal and external
sourcing, are combined in different ratios in different situations (Prince,
1983; Wollmann, 1989; Hawke, 1993; Halligan, 1995; Rochet, 2004).
Discerning the underlying patterns of policy analysis, their influence
and effectiveness in different analytical contexts involves understanding
how a policy advice system is structured and operated in different coun
tries, jurisdictions and sectors of policy activity (Lindquist, 1998; Mayer
et al., 2004; Verschuere, 2009) and is thus a good example of a subject
well suited to comparative public policy analytical techniques.

How policies change: The punctuated equilibrium

model of policy dynamics
These insights into the nature of public policy, policy processes and
policy actors have been brought together in recent years by students of
comparative public policy dynamics; that is, in order to explore and
explain the manner in which policies change. In this regard, the
26 Comparatiw Policy Studies

contemporary study of policy dynamics owes a broad debt to two works

which appeared 30 years apart: Peter Hall's above-mentioned study of
policy paradigms (Hall, 1989) and Charles Lindblom's earlier work on
incrementalism (Lindblom, 1959).
Both authors worked in a synthetic fashion, utilizing the insights of
other scholars into aspects of politico-administrative behaviour - in
Lindblom's case Herbert Simon's insights into the nature of organizational
behaviour (Simon, 1957), and in Hall's case Thomas Kuhn's ideas about
the history of scientific advance (Kuhn, 1962) - to propose and refine the
notion that general patterns of policy development can be identified and
understood which transcend specific subject areas and content.
Hall's work served to break the long-term orthodoxy in studies of policy
dynamics dominated by Lindblom-inspired incrementalism, that is, the
position that due to constraints on the nature of human cognition which
lead to most decision-making effectively being political bargaining, a
single type of policy dynamics - marginal or small increments from the
status quo - would characterize almost all instances of public policy
making (Hayes, 1992; Howlett and Ramesh, 2003). Although Hall agreed
with this basic characterization and finding, he also identifieda second
pattern of change. This was the broad 'paradigm' shift which could be
observed in many policy areas in many countries and sectors over long
periods of time in which policy goals changed in a non-linear fashion;
such as when ideas about 'wellness' in the health sector took over from
long-held notions about 'illness'.
Comparative scholars studying public policy dynamics have been
involved in a 20-year effort to better refine the two patterns and assess their
interrelationship. As this work has developed, a new 'post-incremental'
orthodoxy has emerged as policy scholars have generally accepted the
idea borrowed from paleo-biology (Eldredge and Gould, 1972) and first
put forward in the context of policy dynamics by Baumgartner and
Jones (1991) - that periods of marginal adaptation and revolutionary
transformation are typically linked in an overall 'punctuated equilib
rium' pattern of policy change. That is, they are linked in a pattern in
which periods of relatively long-term stability in policy goals succeed
each other through shorter unstable transitionary phases.
The principle elements of the new orthodoxy in comparative studies
of policy dynamics are that:
Any analysis of policy development must be historical in nature and
cover periods of years or even decades or more (Sabatier and Jenkins
Smith, 1993).2
 Michael Howlett and Ben Cashore 27

" Political institutions and their embedded policy subsystems act as the
primary mechanisms of policy reproduction (Clemens and Cook,
1999; Botcheva and Martin, 2001; Howlett and Ramesh, 2003).
'Paradigmatic' change, a process in which there is a fundamental
realignment of most aspects of policy development, is generally
understood to occur rarely, and in the absence of such processes pol
icy changes are expected to follow 'incremental' patterns (Genschel,
1997; Deeg, 2001); and,
Paradigmatic transformations or 'punctuations' themselves usually
Occur due to the effects of 'external perturbations' that cause widespread
disruptions in existing policy ideas, beliefs, actors, institutions and prac
tices rather than due to endogenous causes, although this is also possi
ble through processes such as policy learning (Pierson, 1993, 2000;
Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, 1993; Mahoney, 2000; Smith, 2000; Thelen,
2003, 2004; Hacker, 2004;Howlett and Rayner, 2006; Kay, 2006).
More comparative research is required in order to further refine these ideas
(John and Margetts, 2003). For example, some recent longitudinal studies
have failed to find evidence of the exogenously- or externally-driven
change processes typically associated with most contemporary theorizing
about paradigmatic changes (Coleman et al., 1996; Cashore and Howlett,
2007). In some cases, researchers have found dramatic policy change to
involve a more complex pattern of linkages and change among the levels
or orders of policy than originally contemplated (Mortensen, 2005).
Uncovering these hidden' and more complex patterns of policy develop
ment challenges the way most policy studies measure and classify over
all policy dynamics as either 'paradigmatic' or 'incremental' and provide
another fertile field for contemporary comparative policy research
(Howlett and Ramesh, 2002; Lindner, 2003; Lindner and Rittberger, 2003).3

Conclusion

The complexity of public policy is considerable, posing analytical diffi

culties for which students of comparative public policy-making have
developed useful models or analytical frameworks such as those set out
above (Yanow, 1992; Danziger, 1995; Phillips, 1996). The results of such
comparativeefforts have been many and fruitful. These comparative stud
ies of policy elements, processes, actors and dynamics have shown public
policy to be a complex phenomenon consisting of numerous decisions
made by many individuals and organizations inside government at differ
ent points in policy processes, influenced by others operating within, and
28 Comparative Policy Studies

outside of, the state and resulting, generally, in long periods of stability of
outcomes or incremental changes, punctuated by infrequent bursts of
paradigmatic change. The decisions policy-makers make have been shown
to be shaped both by the structures within which these actors operate and
the ideas they hold- forces that have also affected earlier policies in previ
ous iterations of policy-making processes and have set policies onto spe
cific trajectories, sometimes over long periods of time.
Thanks to these studies, the discipline now has a much stronger under
standing about factors such as legislative 'attention spans', 'policy win
dows' and how alterations in subsystem beliefs and membership can result
in certain issues coming to the fore on policy agendas, precipitating change
by shaping what subsystem members deem to be appropriate types and
modes of policy-making (Hall, 1989; Baumgartner and Jones, 1993, 2002;
Kingdon, 1995; Leach et al., 2002). It also has a much better understanding
of the role played by macro-, meso- and micro-institutions which formalize
issue discourses and routinize political and administrative affairs, shaping
the mobilization of actors and restraining change in policy agendas and
processes (Weaver and Rockman, 1993; Thelen, 2003, 2004; Deeg, 2005).
However as pointed out above, this research agenda is by no means
finished. Alarge number of significant questions about policy-making and
policy behaviour continue to exist and define the subjects for further
comparative research. In addition to the kinds of questions about patterns
of policy change mentioned above, it is also the case that most studies
have focussed on a small number of North American and European cases
and many countries and sectors outside this region have received little
attention. Whether and to what extent they share the same characteristics
as oft-studied cases is uncertain. Similarly many studies have focussed on
only a few well-documented, high profile policy sectors such as finance,
trade or health. Many others still require detailed examination in order to
see how well concepts developed in other sectors travel to them. And while
spatial comparisons are reasonably plentiful, temporal ones lag far behind.
Thus, while comparative research has greatly enriched our under
standing of policy-making, more and better comparative studies of policy
making over both time and space are still required to better inform both
contemporary policy theorizing and practice.

Notes

1 For similar models based on a similar critique of Hall, see Daugbjerg (1997)
and Smith (2000). These six categories are inspired from much of the work on
applied policy analysis that teach students to break policy down into their
'goals', 'operationalized' objectives, and specific criteria and who likewise take
 Michael HowBett and Ben Cashore 29

pains to distinguish policy instruments from 'on-the-ground' policy require

ments (Weimer and Vining, 1999).
2 This observation is explicitly raised by Baumgartner and Jones on punctuated
equilibrium and in Paul Sabatier and Hank Jenkins-Smith's work on 'advocacy
coalitions', as well as being implicit in the broad field of historical institution
alism (Sabatier, 1988; Sabatier and Jenkins-Smith, 1993; Mahoney, 2000;
Lindner and Rittberger, 2003).
3 Both incremental and paradigmatic changes generally remain underspecified
entities (Berry, 1990; Bailey and O'Connor, 1975; Kuhn, 1974; Capano, 2003).

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