Communist state

A communist state is a state that is governed by a single party adhering to some variation of Marxist–Leninism as its guiding ideology. A communist state is not necessarily communist, but often aims to achieve socialism and then progress toward full communism. Most communist states have been states with a form of government characterized by one-party rule or a dominant-party system, organized around the political structures of democratic centralism with the party supposedly representing the Vanguard of the working class.

Western historians, political scientists, and media generally consider states that do not consider themselves to be communist nor that claim to have achieved communism; that refer to themselves as Socialist states or Workers' states that are in the process of constructing socialism are commonly refer to as communist states.

Communist states often compare favorably with Western states in some health indicators such as infant mortality and life expectancy. Similarly, Amartya Sen's own analysis of international comparisons of life expectancy found that several Marxist–Leninist states made significant gains, and commented "one thought that is bound to occur is that communism is good for poverty removal."