[Thunderball]

The closest one can get to a "communist democracy" are socialist democratic states. By definition, the two are opposites. Democracy refers to the rule of the people, while communism is the rule of a singular entity, "the state," to provide for society, which to date, has not happened, as the road to communism has always ended in socialist or fascist dictatorships.

The closest analogy to the Roman Empire that I can think of is the current system that claims its structure from the Romans, which is the Mafia. One overriding, all powerful leader that controls all the territories, with his own underlings, but each territory is controlled by its own chieftain, and their underlings, who control other people down the line. The Roman system also has a lot in common with a federal system. Communism in theory has no elites.

Its important to note, capitalist democracies have been the best system to encourage the best out of their systems, and produce the highest productivity, creativity and ingenuity... it is frankly the most egalitarian (socialist systems protect those who do not contribute, which leaves the question of whether it is fair to the hard worker who contributes) ... they shall always be so until the question of scarcity can be answered.