Theres many different views. Some say democracy is whats needed, some disagree because it can foment disunity and be exploited by counter revolutionaries. Others say permanent revolution in order to prevent capitalist powers from outcompeting communist ones are whats needed. Whilst it in theory would definitely give socialist states a lot of breathing room it also basically implies a world war, so tough to win, especially in the nuclear age.

You also need to clarify what you mean by achieve socialism. Do you mean the socialists achiving significant political power i.e. the revolution? Or do you mean what would come afterwards, the actual implementation and development of socialism.

One interesting fact to note is that all ML countrys went the way of state capitalism because of stalins influence. So it could be just a quirk of history rather than inevitable. Cuba is currently taking steps towards democratising its economy now.

Maybe the only way to avoid authoritarianism in socialism is to avoid revolution and rely on gradual evolution, despite the risk of it being rolled back by entrenched interests.