Yes, the state controls the commanding heights of the economy, and yes, the state is controlled by one Communist Party... but what people often leave out of this narrative is that this one party is unlike the parliamentary parties of western liberals. This communist party is a mass party made up of a huge chunk of the population with people coming from mostly working class and peasant backgrounds.
The magnitude and the class composition of the party makes it fundamentally different than if it was state capitalism with one elitist bourgeois party controlling the economy.
Actually Existing Socialism:
Yes, the state controls the commanding heights of the economy, and yes, the state is controlled by one Communist Party... but what people often leave out of this narrative is that this one party is unlike the parliamentary parties of western liberals. This communist party is a mass party made up of a huge chunk of the population with people coming from mostly working class and peasant backgrounds.
The magnitude and the class composition of the party makes it fundamentally different than if it was state capitalism with one elitist bourgeois party controlling the economy.