Quote Originally Posted by Seamus Fermanagh View Post
If, over and above the legitimate fees and market costs for a good or service, your culture condones bribes, requires significant gifts to obtain services or access, kickbacks in salary for having been hired and the like; then the culture itself is condoning corruption and laws will be of secondary influence at best. Until the culture, in the main, rejects and punishes such behavior then laws will not address the problem.
It may happen the other way around. The example is Georgia. During the USSR times it was considered the most corrupt republic and the situation evidently didn't change with the advent of independence. Only the political will of Saakashvili to change the practice and enforce the existing laws made the crackdown on corruption possible. And it took people awhile to get used to the fact that, for instance, the traffic police don't take bribes anymore.