Negative campaigning and dirty campaigning have become buzzwords. Media representatives use them indiscriminately, while representatives and managers of political parties accuse their competitors of these practices. However, a substantive definition is lacking; instead, smear campaigns are subject to favorable interpretations depending on perspective and situation. What the attacker presents as objective, fact-based criticism can be labeled as lowbrow by the attacked party. In this book, the author attempts to develop a definition of the terms associated with the generally demonized concept of negative campaigning. The fact that this includes not only any factual criticism but also morally questionable to illegal campaign practices certainly broadens the scope. Therefore, the author categorizes different campaign tools based on specific criteria. A selection of examples from past electoral disputes makes the theoretical distinctions more tangible and demonstrates their practical relevance.