the full article is here but in summary previously bribes were needed to get most things in georgia - electricity, passports, access to a hospital, a driving licence, a degree. in 2003 crowds took to the streets, the president resigned and after fresh elections early in 2004, a new president and parliament were elected in part on an anti-corruption ticket. so what did they do?
- the overnight sacking of the entire traffic police force of 16,000 men on a single night in July 2004 (recognised as the most visibly corrupt)
- new anti-mafia legislation was introduced
- the tax code was changed and simplified
- old cumbersome regulations were scrapped and replaced by streamlined procedures.
- restoring power supply
- minimising the points of contact between citizens and state officials, and simplifying the cumbersome acts of everyday life that both citizens and officials would expedite by resorting to bribery
- the introduction of a zero-tolerance policy for bribery, and imprisonment upon conviction.
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