This chapter develops a theory of active citizenship, stepping back from the Rajasthani case to ask what fosters and inhibits citizen action in the form of claim-making. The chapter proceeds in three parts. First, it considers the conditions necessary for claim-making: citizens’ interests in, knowledge of, beliefs about, and access to the state that together build aspirations as well as capabilities for state-targeted action. The second part of the chapter asks why these aspirations and capabilities vary, arguing that they are produced by a combination of social and state-led processes. The chapter introduces the concept of social and spatial exposure, which is delimited by boundaries of community and of locality, and exploring the effects of boundary porousness – which facilitates greater exposure that, in turn, motivates and enables state-targeted citizen action. The third part of the chapter explores the limits of exposure and the costs of claim-making, underscoring a set of “scope conditions” – or parameters – that serve to limit, but at the same time clarify, the theory.