Communism is both a form of government and an ideology. As the latter, it predicts a dictatorship of the proletariat established through violence and the eventual disappearance of class and state. As the former, it is equivalent in principle to the dictatorship of the proletariat and in practice to the dictatorship of communists. Socialism is not tied to any specific ideology, it presupposes the state, and it is compatible with democracy and peaceful political change.