ABSTRACT This article studies the impact of a range of state institutions on citizens’ contacts with family and close friends in 20 countries. Recent studies have shown large country level differences in social participation. We aim to explain these differences from an actor centered institutionalist perspective. We present two lines of reasoning. According to the first, a high level of social security crowds out social participation, as intimate networks are no longer needed as an economic safety net. The second line of reasoning proposes that corruption or a lack of civil rights drive citizens to seek refuge in their secure intimate contacts. In a comparative, multi-level design we focus on participation in the nuclear family, in the extended family, and with the best friend. We test the two lines of reasoning simultaneously on ISSP 2001 data. We find that states matter. State institutions are an important determinant of social participation. Our findings mainly confirm the second line of reasoning, whereas the crowding out thesis is only supported for contact with the extended family. Moreover, we find that the contextual effects are not similar across social groups: the poor are more strongly affected by the institutional design than the rich.