I started off with a question something like this: if we could imagine what the best possible human government would look like, would we be able to characterize the fundamental principles of the constitution in a fairly short phrase? When I design software systems, I like to keep in mind the rule of thumb, "Make it easy to do the right thing, and hard to do the wrong thing." Is it possible to sum up a really good government in roughly similar terms? I'm not a political scientist at all, so please don't blow me away with complex theory.
Another question popped up while I was thinking about this stuff: which country in the world currently has the best form of democratic government? I know almost nothing, but years ago I took a PoliSci class that made me really disappointed in our (U.S.) weak party system and our lack of proportional representation. So in case anyone wants to say that the U.S. has the best democratic government, I'll ask what's the best one after the U.S. But then again if you say that the U.S. is the best, I might not give much credence to your answer.
Also, I'm talking about the fundamental principles of government, not the actual laws or the shape of the entire court system or any practical details like that. Basically, the constitution itself, before any amendments.
Also, "Liberte, Fraternite, Egalite" might be pretty, but it doesn't really sum up the French principles of government. It just describes three of the principles. What I'm thinking of would be a deeper set of principles underlying these three and the other principles described in the constitution.