In the current discussion about the central importance of the rule of law for legitimate governance - ensuring legal certainty, independence of the judiciary, equal application of the law without regard to person - the question of the functional conditions of (Western) concepts of the rule of law is often neglected. Can the rule of law function if the rules that shape the respective political system, the "rules of the game," are informal in nature, such as the informal exchange rules of corruption and clientelism? To answer this question, it is necessary to clarify the relationship between formal and informal institutions: do they complement each other, coexist peacefully, or contradict each other, resulting in one type of regulation prevailing at the expense of the other? Diverse observations provide insights.