ABSTRACT
The progressive-liberal-welfare model is the one most typically associated with the justification of state support for individual adult learning. Before looking in more detail at the origins and development of the progressive liberal movement in social welfare policy, it may prove useful to consider briefly the implications of the new conservatism. The Fabian socialists aimed at a peaceful transition from capitalist to socialist society. In fact, the Fabians often come to the same kind of conclusions as the reluctant collectivists. Critics of the liberal-progressive model, either of welfare or adult education policy, might well argue that it is an incoherent model in which priorities of freedom and other goods are not reconciled. Continuing education has been pursued into the 'post-industrial society' with the same intention of capturing a social policy model of adult education which responds to the new technology and to the demands of social and economic change.
