No matter the outcome of the special election, there is little doubt that the Navajo Nation government is due for some change.

"Any government ought to be a work in progress," said Charles Wilkinson, a law professor at the University of Colorado School of Law and who specializes in governments of the West.

"Government should have a continuing tension between stability and change when necessary, so the specifics are something that every government is continually working out," he said.

Because he was unfamiliar with the circumstances of President Joe Shirley Jr.'s government reform initiatives, which the public will vote on next Tuesday, Dec. 15, Wilkinson did not want to comment on the initiative itself.

"This is for the Navajos to decide," Wilkinson said. "I don't have an opinion on whether this is good or bad or a neutral idea."

However, he suggested that some key interests for the public to focus on might be the effect the initiatives might have on the chapters, one of the strongest and most unique aspects of Navajo government. He suggested voters discuss this with others before voting.

Shirley and his supporters have said a reduced council would eventually empower the chapters. Delegates could find their positions completely revamped, for instance focusing on national relations while the chapters would handle more of their own affairs. However, this is not detailed in the initiatives.

Wilkinson, who was invited to speak to the tribe on government formation in 1990 when it was revising its system, said the Navajo Nation is unique in both size and population.

The tribe does have a lot of the same powers as states and, with sovereignty, is more powerful than some states, Wilkinson said.

When western states first joined the union, the benchmark for statehood was 60,000 people. The Navajo Nation has more than 100,000 people.

"I'd guess the total number of legislators was on average with the Navajo Nation's 88 number," Wilkinson said. "But the Navajo Nation has been so creative in so many different areas, it's gone off in its own directions based not so much on what other governments have done but on what Navajo people think is right."

Wilkinson said the current political turmoil facing the nation is relatively normal for a government.

"It's quite common," he said. "Governments and presidents have their ideas and they're often different than the legislature's ideas."

Such conflicts can be good. They can also be bad.

"It can lead to new and creative ideas than you would have if there weren't tension in the government," Wilkinson said. "It can be bad if it stalemates and leads to inactivity."

It is unusual, though not wrong, for lawmakers to place an elected president on leave, he said.

"Navajo is not a cookie-cutter place, the people have to come up with their own solutions that are different and that are often unique," he said.

Another academic did have specific ideas pertaining to Shirley's initiatives.

"Where most nations have too little representation at the government level, I always felt the Navajo Nation was over-represented in terms of the size of its council," said David Wilkins, professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and author of the 1999 book, "The Navajo Political Experience."

Wilkins, who lived on the reservation and taught at Navajo Community College for three years in the 1980s, said he remembers thinking some communities were not as well represented as others.

For instance, residents of Shiprock might have better access to a representative than those from Shonto.

"There was an unequal distribution of power," Wilkins said. "It always made sense that the Navajo government should restructure itself more appropriately. Given the resources and the number of delegates coming to Window Rock four times a year, it made sense that the number be decreased and more properly spaced."

However, Wilkins said voters should question specifically how the number 24 was reached and how reapportionment would happen, should the initiative pass.

Shirley said 24 was the figure the public approved in a September 2000 election to reduce the council. The council nullified the election, citing rules for a referendum vote that require more than half of all registered voters - not just those voting in the election - approve the measure.

At the time, the tribe had 92,261 registered voters, meaning 46,131 "yes" votes were needed. Just over 30,000 people voted in that election.

Wilkins, who was admittedly not well-versed in Shirley's initiatives, said he was also concerned that the public has not been clearly informed as to the possible alternatives and how the reduction would be implemented if approved.

The initiative language puts the power of implementation into the hands of the council.

"The Navajo people still haven't received enough information to make as well-informed a decision as they should be able to make," Wilkins said.

The Navajo Nation's current form of three-branch government is only 20 years old and has so far not been revised since its inception, Wilkins said. The government is due for some changes, he added.

"No government will always do the right thing," he said. "Human beings are imperfect creatures and our institutions are only as perfect as we are."

However, he commended the Navajo Nation court system, which implements both k'é (we are all related) and hózhó (balance) in its doctrine.

"It forms a basis of what a truly informed and well-educated citizen should be about," Wilkins said. "Navajo common law is a really strong argument as to why Navajo values of k'é and hózhó should guide us and be guiding-light principles.

"We should hold our officials up to those principles."

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