Remember, that communism is defined as "stateless" so when a "communist party" takes power and makes economic reforms that's actually just socialism.

Socialism, at least as far as communists think is a necessary step to achieve communism.

None have been successful.

Personally I think that Libya prior to the NATO invasion had the best political system in practice; direct democracy.

I'm an anarchist, but I keep an open mind, no system is perfect.

Theres always some compromise.

For communists the compromise is "temporary" "authoritarian socialism"

But the "outside threats" never go away, they can't transition into communism until all the worlds governments adopt socialism, so it never happens, or it almost happens and they get invaded.