Right now, the eyes of the world are on Scotland, which is voting in the coming week on whether to leave the UK. The referendum in Scotland is binding. If they vote YES, then Scotland will leave after a period of negotiating the details.

A trickier, potentially more explosive situation is unfolding in Spain, where the region of Catalan (which includes Barcelona) is scheduled to vote on November 9 on whether it is to leave Spain. This vote, however, is not binding or accepted at all by the Spanish government, which has said that just the vote itself is illegal.

To better understand what's going on, we conducted a Q&A with Matthew Bennett, editor of The Spain Report, which provides daily news and analysis about political and economic goings on in Spain.

Bennett provided us with the basics of what's going on.