And when the briber is a foreign agent as he usually is it can be desperately hard to pin the responsibility on him.

ECONOMIST: A global war against bribery

One drawback to this technique: sweetheart deals require a number of people to conspire in the transaction the briber, the recipient, a complicit store manager and this increases the risk of a breakdown.

FORBES: Five Schemes for Creative Corruption

Does it matter whether Italy is run by a man investigated by magistrates for money-laundering and accused by prosecutors of being a perjurer, a falsifier of company accounts and a briber of judges, among other things?

ECONOMIST: Italy