I do not see the connection between democracy and communism except for their shared fate of being never totally realized in their desired forms.
Democracy (indirect democracy in a modern definition) refers to the right of people (meaning all inhabitants of a country) to choose their own government with each citizen having just no more or less than one vote. The right to express the own thoughts freely, is not by definition attached to democracy and yet it was an important element of democracies in the modern age.
Communism on the other hand refers more to economical aspects of running a country and requires all the means of production to be public (or rather state owned possession).
I do not see any communist tendencies in any modern democracy (on the contrary, I rather see a threat from a perverted form of capitalism). But I would be interested in your opinion about it and in which modern democracies you see communist structures.
Republik then again is somewhat similar to democracy with the head of government being elected rather than having the right to rule by birth (as in monarchies). However, while nowadays a monarchy may well be democratic (e.g. Great Britain) a republic has definitely only an elected leader. Other than that the difference between both is somewhat blurred and I would be happy about more information on this. Also the word democracy is being used somewhat carelessly nowadays and begins to include economical and cultural aspects which originally have nothing to do with the term.
Anyway, I'd be happy about a discussion on this in the after midnight forum. Please tell me why you think that democracy is a glorified form of communism Drew.