It means that the number of people who care enough to take an active part in the formative stage is small, and in the long run they get control of the wires whether as an elected or a self-constituted committee.
"The Government of England (Vol. I)"
A. Lawrence Lowell
It is, like Kant's 'productive imagination,' formative of experience, but not a part of it.
"John Dewey's logical theory"
Delton Thomas Howard
In the first century, as in the fifth, the formative years of boyhood were devoted almost entirely to the study of the poets.
"Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius"
Samuel Dill