In contrast with professional workers (for example, engineers, doctors, and veterinarians) and service workers (such as cooks, security personnel, and morticians), whose relative power and autonomy reside in the indispensability of their services, cultural workers provide services that are an accessory to the good life. For precisely this reason, cultural workers and cultural institutions are to an exceptional extent dependent on their clients and on others for their good will and support. Definitions of what constitute the criteria for work done by professionals – designing safe bridges or curing diseases – and those provided by service personnel – keeping city streets clean, catching criminals, and embalming the deceased – are relatively standardized and clear cut. While such tasks may not always be easy to carry out, there is public consensus that they have to be done and what the results should be. Moreover, the criteria for evaluation of professional and service tasks change slowly over time and are subject to legal and administrative scrutiny. Both within each profession and each service sector providers compete and co-operate with one another to perform a given task according to the same standards.