Consigliere

Consigliere (Italian "counselor", pronounced [konsiʎˈʎɛːre], roughly kohn-seel-YEHR-eh; plural consiglieri) is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian, Calabrian and American Mafia. The word was popularized by the novel The Godfather (1972), and its film adaptation. In the novel, a consigliere is an advisor or counselor to the boss, with the additional responsibility of representing the boss in important meetings both within the boss's crime family and with other crime families. The consigliere is a close, trusted friend and confidant, the mob's version of an elder statesman, and is an adviser to the boss in a Mafia crime family and sometimes as his right-hand man. In some depictions, he is devoid of ambition and dispenses disinterested advice. This passive image of the consigliere does not correspond with what little is known of real-life consiglieri, however. By the very nature of the job, a consigliere is one of the few in the family who can argue with the boss, and is often tasked with challenging the boss when needed, to ensure subsequent plans are foolproof.

A real-life Mafia consigliere is generally the number-three person in a crime family, after the boss and underboss in most cases. The boss, underboss, and consigliere constitute a three-man ruling panel, or "administration".

In Italian, consigliere means "adviser" or "counselor" and is still a common title for example for members of city councils in Italy and Switzerland. It is derived from Latin consiliarius (advisor) and consilium (advice). The terminology of the U.S. Mafia is taken from that of the Sicilian Mafia and suggests that an analogy is intended to imitate the court of a medieval Italian principality. For example, Venice was led by a doge ("duke") and a consigliere ducale (advisor to the doge). An underboss will normally move up to boss when the position becomes vacant, so his position is equivalent to that of heir to the throne. Consigliere, meanwhile, is analogous to chief minister or chancellor. (In the novel The Godfather, the word is spelled consigliori; in the films, it is clearly pronounced consigliere.) In Joe Bonanno's book A Man of Honor he explains that a consigliere is more the voice or representative of the soldiers of the family, and that he may help to resolve or mediate in disputes for the lower echelon of the family.

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