This paper analyses the relation between power and politics under the conditions of economic globalisation and transnational policy-making in education. The paper argues that power lies not only with the producers of the dominant educational discourse nor simply with the very discourse which is circulated and reproduced in national legislations, local policies and pedagogic practices; it lies with the increasingly global endorsement of a specific perception of what education should be about: to maintain or increase "economic competitiveness", "growth", "development" and ultimately "progress". Progress remains the central signification of societies today, as the paper argues, and, therefore, the main source of power, namely of widespread consent around a largely common set of education policies promoted across countries. (Contains 16 notes.)