I would add that the key difference between the Party and Nazism/Communism is that the Party explicitly denies that there will come a time when human society is happy, or that this is their aim, even in the distant future. For the Party, torture and repression are what affirms its power.
However unrealistic it may seem to us now, both Nazis and Communists believed and proclaimed that some sort of ultimate happiness and peace for society were their goals (at least, happiness and peace for those worthy to enjoy them, the "master race" or the "proletariat"). In other words, they were non-religious quests for the New Jerusalem. O'Brien flatly and angrily denies that anything like this is the case for the Party:
"Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation....Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined....Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain....If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever." (Part III, Chapter 3)
In short, the Party can only feel its power if it exercises it against resistance. There must always be dissidents to be tortured and tried, otherwise the Party's rule will become unreal to its members.
This unpleasant picture was inspired partly by Orwell's distaste for the hedonism of many contemporary social reformers such as H. G. Wells.
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