Abstract: The subdistrict office and community are the basic elements for building the urban governance system， and the smooth relationship between both of them is the basic guarantee for the modernization of governance system and governance capability. In reality， however， there are many deep contradictions between both of them. Through the grounded theory， 22 data samples of subdistrict offices and communities in Liaoning Province were transcribed and encoded， and the four-element model of subdistrict office and community was formulated. The relationship between both of them is an “interaction”， which is made up of four elements—power interaction， work contact， means and forms (information exchange， funds flow， and personnel transfer)， and external environment (district-bureau relationship， and open relationship). As the deep representation of the interaction relationship between subdistrict office and community， power interaction is the decisive element among others.

Key words: subdistrict office, community committee, subdistrict office and community relationship, the grounded theory