Sentence:  Moreover , it is too readily forgotten that in the Republic what gave the initial impetus to Plato 's excursus into the construction of an imaginary commonwealth with its <WSD>ruling-class</WSD> communism of goods , wives , and children , was his quest for a canon for the proper ordering of the individual human psyche ; and it is to this problem that the Republic ultimately returns . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the class of people exerting power or authority