Yet, some countries are way more corrupt than others, in a Western context the US and Southern Europe for example.
And where you might, I know I would never be corrupt myself and live with it. Of course you can brew up some extreme cases where I might (some loved one's life in danger and the only remedy is money bla bla bla), but for greed only I'd never do it, nor would a lot of people I know (though a lot probably would, regrettably).
The major problem here in modern politics is the legal corruption, for appearances called 'lobbying'. Of course an organization should be able to lobby for a representative to take up their case in a democracy, but usually it's just a matter of mere bribery. Money buying a policy, ideology and humanism nowhere in sight.
Also, thank you for the interesting links, Cooties, haven't read into voting fraud in the US since it was demonstrated under the Bush elections.