In the annual report of the NGO Freedom House's political rights and freedoms, Montenegro has been evaluated as a free country. Freedom House is a US based NGO that conducts research and advocacy of democracy, political freedom and human rights. It was founded in October 1941.

Montenegro has been evaluated as a free country. And free countries are those in which political competition is present, ones that respect civil rights, civil liberties and have independent media.Free countries in the region are Croatia and Serbia, as stated in the report. 

When it comes to the global level, according to assessments by Freedom House, democracy around the world was declining in 2012, the seventh year in a row. So far, 90 countries have fully enjoyed the democratic freedom, three more than in 2011, but in 27 countries new restrictions on the freedoms of association, expression and the media have been introduced. About three million people, or 43 percent of the world's population, have all the political rights and civil liberties,while 1.6 million live in partly free countries. Source: MIPA