The theory of Panoptical control: Bentham's Panopticon and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four

The basic idea of panoptical control is that people will obey the prevailing rules and norms when they know they are being watched. The theory was developed by Jeremy Bentham 200 years ago when he designed an architecturally and managerially innovative model prison called Panopticon. Along with his Utopian Panopticon‐poorhouse scheme, Bentham's vast plans have been viewed as the most thorough combination of physical and social engineering ever devised. The various elements of panoptical control theory received their most systematic realization in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty‐four. The novel serves to illustrate the theory and also to suggest Orwellian overtones to Bentham's plans, which were quite antithetical to his Utilitarian philosophy.