But first something must be said about the structure of individual firms. It is uncertain how much the internal organization of any one firm had in common with any other before the attempt at coordination began—whether, in other words, this coordination had any standardizing effect on individual structure. The initiation ritual, for instance, seems to have been a common trademark since the nineteenth century (see Chapter 6). Whatever the case, according to sources from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, each family has a typical hierarchical makeup (VM: 3-6, 77-78; VM-GdS, May 16, 1987; TC-GdS, April 12, 1986; TB: I, 4, 21; see also MA-L'Ora and LV). Ordinary members—men of honor as well as soldiers or operai—are admitted to individual firms, called famiglie. The head of the family, or capo famiglia, also known as the rappresentante, is normally elected by the men of honor in his family; he then appoints a vice-capo and a consigliere (a maximum of three, according to Buscetta), although some families either do not have these positions or attach no importance to them. Elections in this context express the approval on which reputation rests. Voters do not so much choose as legitimize a choice: if all agree to make A the boss, that agreement and the knowledge that it is unanimous become the backbone of A's reputation. Voting also serves to commit the voter publicly.

Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Busi…, loc. 284