In the month following the ratification of the treaty, the Weimar constituent assembly finished a draft constitution for the new republic, resulting in what was welcomed as the most contemporary democratic constitution of its day. The Weimar constitution provided for a popularly designated president who was given substantial power over foreign policy and the armed forces. Article 48 also gave the president emergency decree influences to guard the republic from crises instigated by its opponents on either the left or the right. The president was authorized to nominate the chancellor, whose administration required the confidence of the lower house of the parliament, the Reichstag, which was nominated by universal suffrage through a structure
