James Madison and other leaders in the American Revolution employed the term "popular government" to signify the ideal of a democratic, or "popular," government — a government, as Abraham Lincoln later put it, of the people, by the people, and for the people. In that spirit, Popular Government offers research and analysis on state and local government in North Carolina and other issues of public concern. For, as Madison said, "A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives."

This online collection includes detailed indexes in alphabetical order for most of the years the journal was produced.  The journal was originally created and published in 1931.  The last issue in this journal was produced in 2009.  Please note the following quote from the first volume of this journal by Albert Coates, the founder of the School of Government (formerly the Institute of Government) on the UNC Chapel Hill campus: “Out of these cooperative efforts, centering in the classroom, has grown the movement recorded in this first issue of this journal devoted to the study of our governmental institutions and their processes.  I have merely drawn its outlines.  They have breathed into it the breath of life.”