Friedrich A. Hayek on liberalism and conservatism

There is one point of phraseology which I ought to explain here (in Hayek's book, The Road to Serfdom) the term "liberal" in the original, 19th-century sense in which it is still current in Britain. In current American usage it often means very nearly the opposite of this. It has been a part of the camouflage of leftish movements in this country, helped by the muddleheadedness of many who really believe in liberty, that "liberal" has come to mean the advocacy of almost every kind of government control. I am still puzzled why those in the United States who truly believe in liberty should not only have allowed the left to appropriate this almost indispensible term but should even have assisted by beginning to use it themselves as a term of approbrium. This seems to be particularly regrettable because of the consequent tendency of many true liberals to describe themselves as conservatives.

It is true, of course, that in the struggle of the believers in the all-powerful state the true liberal must sometimes make common cause with the conservative, and in some circumstances, as in contemporary Britain, he has hardly any other way of working for his ideals. But true liberalism is still distinct from conservatism, and there is danger in the two being confused. Conservatism, though a necessary element in any stable society, is not a social program; in its paternalistic, nationalistic, and power-adoring tendencies it is often closer to socialism than true liberalism; and with its tradionalistic, anti-intellectual, and often mystical propensities it will never, except in short periods of disallusionment, appeal to the young and all those others who believe that some changes are desireable if this world is to become a better place. A conservative movement, by its nature, is bound to be a defender of established privilege and to lean on the power of government for the protection of privilege. The essence of the liberal position, however, is the denial of all privilege, if privilege is understood in its proper and original meaning of the state granting and protecting rights to some which are not available on equal terms to others.

~ Friedrich A. Hayek, 1974 Co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, in the Forward to The Road to Serfdom, Page ix