Who is Mayor Ruddgutter from Perdido Street Station and what is their importance?

Bentham Rudgutter is the mayor of New Crobuzon. He is described as a small-time paranoiac dictator, who broaches no opposition, and who uses his militia to wipe out those brazen enough to defy him. Rudgutter is a duplicitous, conniving politician who deploys the militia somewhat like the late Haitian dictator Francois (Pappa Doc) Duvalier, to spy on his subjects, terrorize them with voodoo, and execute his enemies in bizarre, shocking ways.