  A next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD analysis of the spin-dependent parton
distributions $\Delta f^{\gamma}(x,Q^2)$ of the longitudinally polarized photon
and of its structure function $g_1^{\gamma}(x,Q^2)$ is performed within the
framework of the radiative parton model. The important issues of a suitably
chosen factorization scheme and related boundary conditions are discussed in
detail. The typical effects of the NLO corrections are quantitatively studied
for two very different conceivable scenarios for the NLO polarized parton
distributions $\Delta f^{\gamma}(x,Q^2)$.
