Traditionally, the concern of education policy in the United Kingdom has been with public education systems, but a question that needs to be addressed is whether lifelong learning lends itself to the same kind of analysis. The following forces are putting traditional forms of social policy out of business: challenge to the autonomy of the state in legislating policy, reconceptualization of the life world and the social system, and changing significance of the "social" and "public" domains. Current conditions for lifelong learning are a very long way from those in which policy analysis developed, but the same claims about citizenship, justice, equality of opportunity, and social inclusion are being made for lifelong learning, even though the role of the state to secure these objects of policy is diminished by the forces shaping the context of lifelong learning. Conventional policy analysis cannot be adopted in the case of lifelong learning because of ambiguities in its meaning and in the case of some of these meanings, lifelong learning could not be an object of public policy at all. If the meaning of lifelong learning is co-extensive with further development of the public system of education and training, which it is in many respects, then it is subject to policy analysis in the traditional sense. Other meanings of lifelong learning, such as the adoption of a strategic position or a culture of learning, imply a lesser role for government control of inputs and outcomes. In these cases, policy analysis is redundant because its object is public policy. (Contains 40 references.) (YLB)