Friedrich Hayek on the appropriation of the term "liberal" by socialists

[T]here was the deliberate deception practiced by American socialists in their appropriation of the term 'liberalism.'  As Joseph A. Schumpeter rightly put it" 'As a supreme if unintended compliment, the enemies of the system of private enterprise have thought it wise to appropriate its label.'  The same applies increasingly to European political parties of the middle, which either, as in Britain, carry the name liberal or, as in West Germany, claim to be liberal but do not hesitate to form coalitions with openly socialist parties.  It has, as I complained over twenty-five years ago (1960, Postscript), become almost impossible for a Gladstonian liberal to describe himself as a liberal without giving the impression that he believes in socialism.  Nor is this a new development: as long ago as 1911, L.T. Hobhouse published a book under the title Liberalism that would more correctly have been called Socialism, promptly followed by a book entitled The Elements of Social Justice (1922).

~ Friedrich Hayek, The Fatal Conceit, Chapter 6