This article considers the possible long‐run implications of the liberalisation programme currently under way throughout Tropical Africa. A strengthening of private‐sector institutions and a corresponding shift in the relationship between the state and civil society is clearly on the agenda, but – the paper argues – it would not be fruitful for research to remain focused on the public‐private or state‐society balances as such. The more challenging and important questions have to do with (i) the substantially different kinds of private‐sector and civil society development which might result from the current policies, and (ii) the implications of any strengthening of civil societies for the emergence of more autonomous and effective states.