“Karl Popper's The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) famously charged that the Republic's ideal city is totalitarian; others, such as Gregory Vlastos, reject that reading, and scholars still debate which features of Kallipolis are totalitarian and why.”

Context. Eric Brown's SEP entry presents Popper's charge as one of the most heated debates on the Republic, notes Vlastos's opposed reading, and argues that the answer depends on how 'totalitarianism' is defined.