Now, I’m a democratic Marxist, meaning that I believe in a Marxist economy within a democratic political system. Now in all Tankie states, the elections are never unopposed. I think there should be a multi-party system using Single Transferable Vote to ensure that the people’s voice can be heard. Also, on AnComs: I have many AnCom-like views, but I believe that multi-party democratic socialist states are just as legitimate as collectives of anarchist communes.
(Hopefully I won’t get many downvotes from this)
A multiplicity of parties does not guarantee “democracy”.
The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them. Julius Nyerere
Within a party structured around democratic centralism and the principle of engagement with the masses you can have a far greater degree of democracy than in a multi party state. Also if, as you say, you want a marxist economy why would you want to sacrifice that by allowing non-marxist elements control of the state machine? Capitalism doesn’t persist in capitalist countries because everyone votes for its reinstatement every year. It persists by force; and it will use that force if ever given half a chance through the ballot box. Having a government with a Marxist-Leninist party at the head of governance also does not preclude other parties from being coalition partners with said party e.g China, DDR. Not to mention the fact that previous existing socialisms and currently existing socialisms are marked by great degrees of genuine peoples power at local and national levels, with far greater alignment between policy and the interests of the common people
Capitalist states can allow for votes on policy, leadership, etc without compromising core principles. Why would a Socialist state be unable to do the same?
Because those are all curated vote choices which is a false/paper freedom aka lying to the people. What would be achieved by a proletarian state engaging in this?