Montenegro is a parliamentary democracy and has an upper middle-income economy. Of the remaining six Western Balkan countries which are yet to join the EU, Montenegro has come furthest in the accession process. 

The development of the social economy, cooperatives, social enterprises and social entrepreneurship which found themselves in a situation marked by their unfavourable position and image and the insufficient knowledge, in the country, of development trends and international practices, has been characterised by a number of prejudices and stereotypes. Primarily, there is a prejudice that these concepts are linked to the former socialism, which failed, and that social enterprises should be seen exclusively as part of the civil-society sector, while cooperatives should be developed only in agriculture.

The strongest impetus to the development of the social enterprises concept may be linked to two factors, namely the process of integration into the EU and the necessity to fill the gaps that cannot be covered by the welfare state due to budget restrictions and the low level of efficiency of state institutions.