This paper aims to explain the development of cultural industries policy (CIP) in Thailand between the early 2000s and the end of 2014. The paper asks two central questions. First, to what extent has creative industry policy emerged as a policy domain distinct from traditional cultural policy? Have ideas motivating CIP in Western countries and also other Asian states merely been grafted onto long-existing policies for the promotion of culture? Or is there evidence to suggest that CIP has assumed a distinctive policy profile, supported by an organizational infrastructure capable of coherent policy development, formulation and implementation? The main substantive focus here is on CIP policy relating to the film industry. Second, the paper employs actor-centred institutionalism as an explanatory framework to explain the policy trajectory over time. It is, accordingly, interested in the interaction between institutional factors, actors, and ideas that have shaped the evolution of the policy.
