The politics of Malawi takes place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Malawi is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. There is a cabinet of Malawi that is appointed by the President of Malawi. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Malawi attained independence in July 1964 and was governed as a one-party personalist dictatorship under Hastings Banda and his Malawi Congress Party from 1964 to 1994. In the early 1990s, pressure formed on the regime to democratize.