Chileans have been building with confined masonry for decades.

Chileans had needed to rebuild a society divided by pain and injustice.

Chileans today pay the highest electricity rates in the region, because generating capacity has failed to keep pace with rising demand. A prolonged dry spell could cause the lights to go off in the next few years.

Only 20 of the 198 countries on Earth have reached that age. Therefore, it has been, for Chileans, a time of assessment and of asking ourselves a very simple, yet profound, question have we done things right or wrong?

Employment policy was yet another shortcoming of his administration. With the post 2009 recovery came a drop in measured joblessness, which allowed the government to pay scant attention to a labor market that leaves out far too many women and young Chileans.

Not surprisingly, Chileans have kept the ruling Christian Democrat Socialist coalition (the Concertación ) in power for four consecutive terms since 1990, when democracy was restored after 17 years of General Augusto Pinochet s repressive military rule. On December 13, however, voters in Chile s presidential election are likely to make the Concertación candidate sweat.

The Chilean economy has expanded, and no one with his or her heart in the right place can fail to celebrate that but this growth has little to do with the former president s policies. Even worse, the expansion is proving to be unsustainable, and Chileans will soon feel the consequences of Piñera s failure to carry out the pro growth reforms he once promised.

And, of course, those young Chileans will have better prospects of getting a job if they come equipped with a first rate education. Chile has succeeded in getting the young into the classroom (enrollment rates are comparable to those in developed countries) but it has had limited success at ensuring that the young and particularly the children of low income families receive a high quality education once they are there.

Chile s excellent economic performance has been the result of the free market policies introduced during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet but confirmed and strengthened by democratically elected governments over the 25 years since he left office. So, given the success and popularity of these policies, it is surprising that Chile s voters have elected a president and a parliament that many Chileans now fear could put this approach at risk.