ABSTRACT
Contract teams are groups in which the followers do not feel themselves beholden to the leader or to any cause as a matter of conscience, but evaluate the relationship with the leader on the basis of profit or potential profit. It should be stressed that in spite of the materialistic basis of transactional groupings in politics, successful leadership is a matter of skills rather than just of possessions. The transactional leader works to create a kind of legitimacy for himself: to make other people expect that he will do what he says he will do. Spiritual or moral leadership in political groups is a matter of manipulating symbols. National honour, national effectiveness and responsible leadership were the themes symbolized. Control of these symbols and of the means of counteracting them constitute political capital. Relative access to political capital and political credit distinguishes the leader who is weak among his supporters from the leader who is strong.
