Implicitly or explicitly, they are invariably motivated by a particular normative ideal and focus on identifying the ways certain normative possibilities were foreclosed or opened up. Indeed, normative theories themselves play an independent role within any explanatory theory of citizenship by legitimizing and shaping the demands and actions of the various social and political actors who create citizenship. So, people in ancient Greece and Rome had very different views of the ideal of citizenship to ours and these provided a justification for the way these societies were organized. But elaborations of these same ideals have also inspired many later thinkers and activists-including some today-to militate for changes to the way citizenship is practiced or defined within their own very different societies.