On another level, however, state bureaucracies are very different from private-sector organizations, for they have their own characteristics and objectives, which will be endangered were they are reduced to quantitative standards of performance and efficiency. Indeed, one of the main reasons why certain tasks are given to governments, rather than left to the private sector, is that ordinary market mechanisms do not work in the case of so-called “public goods” because the market cannot determine the optimal level of their supply.