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Chile's center-left Concertación coalition has controlled La Moneda presidential palace for 20 years. Naturally, then, fatigue is one explanation for the first-round victory of center-right presidential candidate Sebastián Piñera in Chile's Dec. 13 election.

It also may explain why the former senator and billionaire tycoon is favored to win the Jan. 17 run-off against former president and Concertación candidate Eduardo Frei.

Yet lurking just beneath the surface there may be other more powerful factors at work, not the least of which is Chile's declining productivity under four successive Concertación governments, and a growing sense that for the first time in 20 years, economically speaking, life for Chileans is no longer getting better. Mr....