I'm not interested in debating the merits or lack thereof of socialism as a system of government, but the "bread and circuses" thing applied to Roman citizens.
Unless I was misinformed, the overlap between the people in the Roman empire who were citizens and the people in the Roman empire who were the labour force was very, very small.
So, executive boards of companies?
The positive aspect is that it introduces democracy into the system (through control by officeholders), if only for the moment that it takes for power to recentralize (as any autonomy that the business has is lost due to patronage appointments from the central government or larger unions.) Maybe this could be prevented by handing control to the union of the workers in a particular company, or a particular location, rather than large unions that cover entire industries.