Vivant is a small

social-liberal Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice, social services, a mixed economy, and the expansion of civil and political rights, as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

founded by millionaire

Roland Duchâtelet Roland Duchâtelet (; born 14 November 1946) is a Belgian businessman and politician. He is owner of various football clubs. He is the founder of the social-liberal political party Vivant in Belgium. Business In 1990, he became involved in mi ...

. In the regional elections in June 2004, the party formed a strategic

alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or sovereign state, states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an a ...

with the

Flemish Liberals and Democrats The Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (, , Open Vld) is a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium. The party has been described as centre-right and has smaller factions within the party that have conservative liberal and social liberal v ...

(VLD). Both parties are founded on the principle of

individualism Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, and social outlook that emphasizes the intrinsic worth of the individual. Individualists promote realizing one's goals and desires, valuing independence and self-reliance, and a ...

and can be called liberal. In 2007, the party announced it would likely merge with the VLD. Vivant is economically interventionist, advocating a

basic income guarantee Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform work. I ...

for all citizens. Vivant considers the basic income as an inalienable part of the legal

minimum wage A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. List of countries by minimum wage, Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation b ...

(approximately half of it for full-time employment). In order to tax goods more evenly, wherever they are manufactured in order to respond to automatisation,

globalization Globalization is the process of increasing interdependence and integration among the economies, markets, societies, and cultures of different countries worldwide. This is made possible by the reduction of barriers to international trade, th ...

and an

ageing population Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biol ...

, Vivant proposes to shift taxes from labour to final

consumption Consumption may refer to: * Eating *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically known as consumption * Consumer (food chain), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of n ...

. (All taxes in the chain of production are an inclusive part of the price paid by the consumers and could be considered as a consumption tax, each tax in each stage with its specific side effects.) Vivant also proposes a

flat tax A flat tax (short for flat-rate tax) is a tax with a single rate on the taxable amount, after accounting for any deductions or exemptions from the tax base. It is not necessarily a fully proportional tax. Implementations are often progressi ...

on income in two steps, 0% on to 1350 Euro and 50% from there. The VLD doesn't support all of these measures. Vivant also has

direct democracy Direct democracy or pure democracy is a form of democracy in which the Election#Electorate, electorate directly decides on policy initiatives, without legislator, elected representatives as proxies, as opposed to the representative democracy m ...

as one of its key points. The main goal of the party and its universal income proposal, is a creation of an extensive welfare system. The party seeks a "more effective struggle against poverty and exclusion, the end of stigmatizing controls on beneficiaries, and an effective way of suppressing unemployment traps." In the regional elections of 2004, partner VLD lost heavily, dragging Vivant with it to third place among

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

political parties. Although interest in Vivant increased during the elections, the party remained a marginal force in Belgian politics. Vivant is particularly strong in the

German-speaking community of Belgium The German-speaking Community (, , DG), also known as East Belgium ( ), is one of the three Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, federal communities of Belgium. The community is composed of nine municipalities in Liège Province, ...

, where it won 7.3% and two representatives in the Parliament of the German community. While ''vivant'' means "alive" or "lively" in French, as an acronym "VIVANT" stands for Voor Individuele Vrijheid en Arbeid in een Nieuwe Toekomst, ("for individual freedom and labour in a new future") in

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

Elections

Vivant first took part in the federal elections for the

Belgian Senate The Senate ( ; ; ) is one of the two chambers of the Bicameralism, bicameral Belgian Federal Parliament, Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium), Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be ...

and Chamber of Representatives in 1999, but obtained no seats. The 2003 elections were no different. In 2004 there were elections of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

and the Belgian regional parliaments, where Vivant took part in a list-cartel with the VLD, but none of Vivant's candidates were elected. In 2006, Nele Lijnen became a co-opted member of the Senate.

Election results

Parliament of the German-speaking Community

Flemish Parliament

European Parliament

Notes

References

External links

Vivant
official site * http://www.vivanteurope.org/doc/THEME/th29_2_en.pdf {{Authority control Political parties supporting universal basic income Liberal parties in Belgium Social liberal parties Belgian nationalism Eurosceptic parties in Belgium