This article argues against the apparent aversion to apply positive political models in the comparative literature on non-Western politics. To provide an example of the utility of such models, the article draws on Peter Van Roozendaal's game theoretical model of cabinet stability to account for the instability of coalition governments in India. It argues that government durability in this non-Western democracy can be modeled as the function of the motivations and incentives of two sets of key actors, the dominant and the central parties, the same way as it can in a Western context.