Is Communism Compatible with Democracy ?

[Secretary of State Liberal Hack]

Is the system of communism as outlined by Marx and practiced by real states compatiable with conventional ideas of democracy ?

[SWE]

No

[Cassius]

No ideology is compatible with democracy.

[CEO Mindset]

the two kind of go together, yeah

[GeneralMacArthur]

On paper the entire point of communism is to be a giant multi-tiered democracy.  The workers unite to control the means of production.  They democratically elect representatives to make decisions about broader national goals and resource allocation at progressively higher levels of government.

In practice, once you and your brave revolutionary freedom fighter friends actually shove communism down your country's throat, if you were to allow real democracy, the people you're heroically trying to rescue will almost certainly say "hey actually we don't want communism."  This is because they've been brainwashed by capitalists.  They don't know it, but it's in their own best interests for you to choose their representatives for them.

Don't worry though, this is just for the start.  Once they all see the glories of communism, joyously toiling in the fields for 14 hours a day doing backbreaking and obscenely inefficient manual labor to satisfy a pastoral agrarian fantasy that predates the second industrial revolution, they'll come around, and then and only then can you entrust them with democracy.  And if they don't, hey, there's always re-education.

The other thing you have to worry about is those representatives you hand-picked.  Sometimes they can turn against you and try to depose you.  The capitalists are incredibly powerful and have spies everywhere and will do anything to end your glorious rule.  Unfortunately, the only solution is to keep your iron grip on power until you can be absolutely sure that all the capitalist spies and kulak traitors among your former so-called "friends" have been exterminated.  Once again, this is in the best interests of your people, and they'll certainly see that.

[PSOL]

Yes, as the final stage post-revolution is full democracy without safeguards against internal meddling and external pressure.

[Agonized-Statism]

Stateless communism, achieved after a world of socialist states has progressed to such an extent that the state is no longer needed, is direct democracy. Democracy is inherent to the ideology. But what you probably mean is "can communist parties govern in liberal multi-party systems?"- you can certainly have left-wing parties governing in that environment, but a party pursuing communism as envisioned by Marx as the end goal of socialism would plan on the opposition falling away whether by force or because their ideas are disproven and they concede.

The left, like the right, isn't a monolith- syndicalists for example don't believe there should be a communist party at all, and anarchists believe we don't even need the socialist state to get to communism- and as long as you frame these kinds of questions in such a way where you're ready to pounce on informed answers with "but Venezuela iPhone Meow the Tongue 7 million doesn't work", denying that democracy is an integral part of the theory at least, you aren't actually looking for the answer.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Yes and no

Yes in that it is possible
No in the sense that it is not absolutely compatible (but so is liberalism and so is fascism, since lol a majority of people can agree with fascist policies).

[Ferguson97]

No, communism is inherently incompatible with democracy.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

In theory yes, in practice No.

[Vice President Christian Man]

Definitely not Marxism with the "dictatorship of the proletariat", but in theory it could be possible. I can see libertarian variations including anarcho-communism in particular as being compatible, but most types are too authoritarian.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Marxist-Leninism is/was aggressively and openly anti-democratic and inherently totalitarian, so, no. Where it gets a little strange is that Communist parties operating within a democratic system often were entirely compatible with it, and frequently ran local authorities within legal frameworks without difficulty (though it's a bit of a myth that they often ran them well) and when they were incorporated as junior partners into coalition governments (which wasn't that common, but did happen occasionally) they generally behaved themselves. But in the end these two facts are not actually contradictory.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Marxist-Leninism is/was aggressively and openly anti-democratic and inherently totalitarian, so, no. Where it gets a little strange is that Communist parties operating within a democratic system often were entirely compatible with it, and frequently ran local authorities within legal frameworks without difficulty (though it's a bit of a myth that they often ran them well) and when they were incorporated as junior partners into coalition governments (which wasn't that common, but did happen occasionally) they generally behaved themselves. But in the end these two facts are not actually contradictory.

Honestly, what's commonly called Marxism-Leninism should probably be called "Leninism-Stalinism" instead (and then with all its further declinations in Maoism, etc.). All these ideological strands (if you can even call them that as opposed to mere post-hoc rationalizations of autocratic regimes) deviate significantly from Marx's thinking, and I don't think they should be allowed to claim monopoly over it.

All these complexities make the OP question pretty much unanswerable, but based purely on Marx I'm going to say yes.

[Big Abraham]

Communism is the democratization of the means of production, so not only is it compatible with democracy, it is also necessary for its true development.