Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Austria is a federal republic made up of nine states, known in German as Länder. Since Land is also the German word for a sovereign state, the term Bundesländer is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. The Constitution of Austria uses both terms. In English, the term land is commonly rendered as "state" or "province".Each Austrian state has an elected legislature, the Landtag, a state government, the Landesregierung, and a governor, the Landeshauptmann. Elections are held every five years (six years in Upper Austria). The state constitution, among other things, determines how the seats in the state government are assigned to political parties, with most states having a system of proportional representation based on the number of delegates in the Landtag in place. The Landeshauptmann is always elected by the Landtag, meaning that it may be necessary to form a coalition in order to secure the election of a particular candidate. e