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Nowadays, increase of analyzing stock markets as complex systems lead graph theory to play a key role. For instance, detecting graph communities is an important task in the analysis of stocks, and as planar maximally filtered graphs let us to get important information for the topology of the market. In this study, we first obtain correlation network representation of UK's leading stock market network by using a novel threshold method. Then, we determine vertex clusters by using modularity and analyze clusters in planar maximally filtered graph substructures. Our analyze include a new measure called weighted Gini index for measuring the sparsity. The main goal of this paper is to study the hierarchical evolution of the market communities throughout the Brexit referendum, which is known as the stress period for the stock market. Hence, the overall sample is divided into two sub-periods of pre-referendum, and post-referendum to obtain communities and hierarchical structures. Our results indicate that financial companies are leading elements of the clusters. Moreover, the significant changes within the network topologies are observed for insurance, consumer goods, consumer services, mining, and technology sectors whereas oil and gas and health care sectors have not been affected by Brexit stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relation of Brexit, the British referendum on leaving the European Union (EU), to democracy. Topics include the relation of the European Commission and the European Parliament to democracy, the role of national sovereignty in relation to democracy, and British resistance to free trade agreements.

Brexit is intended to return autonomy for law-making to the UK Parliament, and this opportunity could be used to improve intellectual property laws. These were originally drafted to support innovation, but like other laws of property they were captured by interests. The result is that their original function has been far surpassed in economic importance by their use for moving corporate profits to and through tax havens for tax evasion and avoidance. Although an opportunity to improve information protection laws may indeed result, Britain has never been a leader in drafting these, compared with Germany and the United States. Also, to the extent that better laws could refocus investment on technological innovation, and away from financial innovation, it could be expected that they would be opposed by interests with a major stronghold in the City of London. Reference is made to specific proposals for change already advanced in Prometheus, to which is added a new suggestion about how more generous overhead payments from public funding of innovation could help to stimulate more firms to bid for this. Also, a proposal is made for a means of rectifying a series of legal decisions which have had the effect of denying firms the ability to benefit from new ideas offered by outsiders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]