Orwell Revisited: 1984 as a Critique of State Capitalism, Not Just Totalitarianism

Abstract

This research study is strategically interpreted as a critique of state capitalism rather than dictatorship alone. A Qualitative methodology employing the textual analysis as its core method of 1984 and alongside Orwell’s political essays, this research study intensively examines how Oceania represents oligarchical collectivism _ a system in which the state controls production and distribution while preserving class hierarchy. The findings explicitly depicts that the Party maintains power and authority not only through surveillance and through control, but through deliberate scarcity, perpetual war to destroy surplus, and Newspeak to eliminate economic discourses. Class persists without private property, with the inner Party acting as a new ruling elite. Orwell presents the three super states as economically identical, suggesting that both market capitalism and state capitalism converge into centralized oligarchy when the democracy is absent. This research paper concludes that 1984 is ultimately a warning about the fusion of political and economic power. Its relevance lies in showing that without democratic control of both the economy and information, any system risks producing inequality, oppression, and the erosion of independent thought.