Text in German. Elections and the preceding phases of critical competition are of central importance in democracies in the process of decision-making and the allocation of temporary power. In these controversial political phases, different areas of conflict and different political styles become visible. The Austrian federal states were also largely characterized by sharp disputes in those years. The anthology analyzes the factual and ideological controversies and the different styles of political conflict in Austria’s federal states on the basis of nine comparative individual studies and a summarizing overall view, about whose domestic politics - compared to federal politics - is still less known.