ALBANY — Democrats who won the Senate majority in November are creating an uncertain coalition that gives great power to three dissidents but leaves many veterans in the 32-member conference fuming.

“It’s part Machiavelli, part Shakespeare and part ‘Sopranos’ where you have all kinds of deals that can’t be refused, so it’s a little ‘Godfather,’ too,” said Doug Muzzio, a public affairs professor at Baruch College in Manhattan.

“Three guys are cutting the best deal they can and were rewarded,” he said Monday. “Clearly there’s confusion, clearly Malcolm Smith doesn’t have complete control of the ship and that there are still disagreements and rumblings.”

“Smith looks weakened and indecisive, and he’s making enemies,” Muzzio said of apparent deals between the renegades and Senate Democratic leader Malcolm Smith.

Several Democrats said in recent days they are angry about the agreements, but wouldn’t comment on the record while Smith takes several days to announce committee assignments and even who will be majority leader.

Part of the political accommodation includes satisfying Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., a Bronx minister who said he has assurances a bill to legalize gay marriage won’t get to the Senate floor despite strong support among most other Democrats in the conference.

Smith, however, said his first task is clear: Get a Democratic majority for January.

“Leadership is about making decisions for the greater good,” he told reporters, emphasizing that securing a Democratic majority is the top priority because the state is in crisis.

In answering a reporter’s question, Smith said he doesn’t see agreements with the dissidents as blackmail, and doesn’t fear he’s opening himself up to similar ultimatums in the future.

Decisions made in a contentious closed-room meeting Saturday began to emerge Monday in two Smith news conferences — one of which raised more questions than were answered, including who will be majority leader.

Incoming freshman Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. said Smith has promised him that job and its stipend, a career-capping position that only a few lawmakers have gained in decades in Albany, in exchange for his support.

The deal came as Espada is contesting city and state allegations over his own campaign financing.

But Smith has clouded the nature of the majority leader job and its power by saying Sen. Jeffrey Klein of the Bronx would be his vice president pro tem.

That could put Klein, who is loyal to Smith, into the second most powerful position in the Senate — above Espada — if Smith treats the position as superior to majority leader.

“Jeff Klein has always been my No. 2, he’s been the deputy,” Smith said, without further clarifying the role.