Malawi is a unitary presidential republic of 28 districts. Peter Mutharika returned to office after winning the September 2025 election, and the economy depends heavily on tobacco exports and smallholder farming.
In the 12 Axes register, Malawi leans hardest on Federal – Unitary: Unitary 83%; the register median is Unitary 68%.
Take the test and this line shows how close your twelve scores are to Malawi, and the axis where you differ most.
Where Malawi sits on each of the twelve axes, in four categories. The label is our estimate; the line under it says why.
Centralized
Unitary state with 28 districts
Representative Democracy
Incumbent Chakwera conceded defeat in September 2025
Centrist
Court annulled 2019 vote; 2011 protest crackdown killed 18
Non-Interventionist
Non-aligned, member of SADC and Commonwealth
Neutral
Small army focused on peacekeeping
Centrist
Many ethnic groups, Chichewa and English official
Economic Liberal
Tobacco-dependent market economy
Balanced
State fertiliser and seed subsidies since 2006
Moderate
Tobacco exports, import-dependent
Spiritual
Christian majority, Muslim minority
Traditionalist
Same-sex acts criminalised
Neutral
No notable technology policy
Set against the median of all 195 countries in the register.
Democratic – Autocratic
On Democratic – Autocratic, Malawi is at Democratic 68%. The register median is balanced 50%.
Internationalism – Nationalism
On Internationalism – Nationalism, Malawi is at balanced 50%, almost the register median of balanced 50%.
Closeness is 100 minus the root-mean-square distance on all twelve axes.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.britannica.com
Map: Marcos Elias de Oliveira Júnior, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and resized.
Last updated: 2026-10-15
The tiers on this page are our estimates from public positions and policies. They are not an official statement by the person or the government concerned. Two independent passes scored every axis and a third settled the differences. How the register works. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected].
