The 'Corleonesi' is the name given to not only the clan from Corleone but also all their allies. Riina was able to take over because he had shaped secret alliances with people who were working for or with Bontate and Inzerillo. Once they were killed the Corleonesi took over these families. Clearly they were militarily superior because it was a one-sided massacre. The international connections of Bontate and Inzerillo simply transfered over to the Corleonesi because there was too much money at stake at the time.
So in the end, military power outweighs political power.
Indeed, by the time they started the massacre, they already made sure to be the majority: most of the commission members were already Riina's allies and in many families that were not, the underbosses switched to Riina's side, since he promised them the boss position after the boss would be killed. I think Bontate's underboss was Pietro Lo Iacono, and he was in it with Riina to whack Bontate. Same situation with Inzerillo and his underboss Salvatore Montalto (I think that's the name).
By the way, does anyone find curious the fact that, while it's usually defined as an "old mafia vs new mafia" conflict, as the "losing" side families were considered "conservatives" and were historically at the top of the Cosa Nostra, while the "winning" coalition headed by Riina had many leaders coming from small towns and it was their "first taste for power", like Riina and Provenzano themselves. Yet, unlike other similar wars, the "old" mafia main bosses at the time (Inzerillo and Bontate) were 37 and 42 years old when they were whacked, while most of the Riina's main allies were a generation older (Michele Greco, Francesco Madonia, Antoninco Geraci, Bernardo Brusca etc, if we take just the Palermo province for example). Kind of funny imo, that the "traditionalists" were represented by younger gangsters, while the "upcoming", "new" mafia was headed by "grandfathers" who re-discovered their ambitions at that age, while weren't very much heard about when they were younger. Look at Carmelo Colletti who became the Agrigento province boss allied with Riina: he wasn't noticed much until that war, he was just boss of Ribera, and in the 80s when he was over 60, he suddenly went on a crazy rampage, killing everybody in his province like Riina did in Palermo. Usually they act like that when they are relatively young, and calm down at least a little, when growing old. In the "Corleonesi" coalition it was mostly the other way around as it seems. Procopio Di Maggio, who took over Cinisi from Badalamenti and aligned himself with Riina, was considered the oldest prisoner in Italy, as I read in an article. Of all those so-called "old conservative godfathers" opposed to Riina, only Badalamenti could be considered relatively "old" at the time, but he was kicked out of the mafia in 1978 already, later left Italy, and wasn't really in the picture anymore.
