  Some of the most heated discussions of the politics of Plato’s  Republic have surrounded the charge of totalitarianism  famously advanced by Karl Popper ([1945] 1971). Like the other “isms” we have been considering,  totalitarianism applies to the Republic only conditionally,  depending on the definition of ‘totalitarianism’ offered. But it is worth thinking through the various ways in which this  charge might be made, to clarify the way the philosopher-rulers wield political authority over the rest of the city (see Bambrough 1967, Taylor 1986, L. Brown 1998, and Ackrill 1997).