a muito poucos

Over the last few weeks I derived certain conclusions from my analysis of Catholic peoples. First, when left without the guidance of an authority, Catholic peoples are poor thinkers because they cannot think independently.

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When it comes to political ideas this inability to think independently becomes a tragedy. Since they are not able to create a system of political ideas of their own they usually end up importing one from abroad. What is foreign becomes to them the standard of what is good and modern. Their political practice, instead of trying to adapt political ideas to the reality and traditions of their country, consists, rather, in trying to adapt their their country to a system of foreign political ideas. They are doomed to fail. Thus, if we let Catholic peoples govern themselves they will be poorly governed. They obviously need an elite to govern them.

These conclusions were shared by Salazar. In the Introduction to vol. III of his Discourses he wrote in 1943 (bold mine)

"Na grande massa do povo (...) há, por intuição talvez, firme consciência nacional (...) mas não há, porque não pode haver, sólida consciência política. Por outro lado, aqueles que, oriundos dos vários meios, constituem o que deveria esperar-se ser a classe dirigente, falham em geral como condutores do povo e portadores de pensamento político. De onde ser em Portugal a Nação acessível a todos e o Estado a muito poucos".
(Salazar, Discursos, vol. III, p. IX, 1943)