One of my colleagues argues quite convincingly that most of the states of southeast Europe have settled into a quasi-democracy that is reminiscent of (particularly southern) Italy. By "quasi" is meant that clientelistic networks still dominate the economy, particularly in some smaller towns. Political parties have connections with these networks as well.  In the last campaign for parliamentary elections, the leader of one of the political parties even argued that this was natural and just part of good old democracy.