Instead, he said it should create its own model, drawing from socialism and capitalism.

We may, in fact, be moving toward a hybrid system, something different from both traditional capitalism and socialism, without anyone even noticing.

The first community stations began as pirates, broadcasting political free-speech and music programs after the change from socialism.

"But we also want to take what's good from socialism."

The shift from socialism to liberalism has a quality of the fateful.

"Nobody has previously taken the road that leads from socialism to capitalism," he said.

He has also transformed his party from classical socialism, to acceptance of a mixed economy.

"We are going from socialism to capitalism, from war to peace."

If there were a book on how to make the leap from socialism to free markets, one might guess they wrote it in Czechoslovakia.

"The transition from socialism to free enterprise was all about grabbing," he said.