Reply #26: Totalitarianism is most accurate.

[izzybeans]

Orwell was a democratic socialist and deplored any form that totalitarian regimes took, capitalist or communist. He critiqued Stalinism in a way that would demonstrate that "it could happen here".

Animal Farm is similar to 1984 in that way, its just way more specific about the subversion of the Russian revolution and the purging of democratic reformers. So it's less a work of fantasy than 1984, and more "real" as a poster said above. But both are educationally "factional" in their blending of fact and fiction, so that the lessons learned are obvious to people who actually read them, unlike the many who use the term Orwellian to indicate anything they don't like.