 The new regime was soon to discover that changes don 't easily come about by legislative fiat . The part of the constitution that worked adequately was the experiment with indirect democracy . During the period in which the constitution was in force , the system of primary assemblies that elected delegates who voted for the respective organs of government worked efficiently , and kept the voters engaged . However , exactly because the Republic was a genuine democracy , other goals of the regime were less easy to attain . The elections often put people into office that were very much opposed to the unitary state that was now enshrined in the constitution , and to other innovations that it entailed , or in any case were of a conservative inclination . 
