Drinking socially is not exactly drinking. It is more like a formality and it is as important as drinking water at a social gathering. But alcoholics can't accept situation in that way. Once they have a glass of alcohol, they crave for more and the most important thing for them would be to grab one more glass. In this way they humiliate themselves in front of everyone.
An alcoholic is a person who got addicted to alcohol and he loses all his logical thinking at the sight of a glass of alcohol. Normal people(non alcoholics) have the common sense that they should behave themselves at a social gathering and have to have a control over the amount of alcohol they take. But this is not exactly the case with an alcoholic. After having a sip, he loses his common sense and reasoning and craves for more glasses of alcohol. No matter how much one tries to persuade them, there would be no control over the alcohol they take. They just get into drinking and they don' think about the people around them. That is the nature of the alcoholism.
It is not their mistake. They just got addicted to the alcohol from which they couldn't get out. So, it is not a wise thing to debate on whether an alcoholic could ever drink socially. Whatever the side one takes, it obviously doesn't do justice to the situation they are in. Many people instantly say that they couldn't get out of the situation and so they can not drink ever socially. But it implies that they are not fit for social gatherings and it sends waves that they are bad. But they are not bad and they are just addicted. Even the 'normal' people could be addicted to something or other.
They are not bad and I don't say their presence causes any problem to any person at the social gathering. It is just that it would be a problem to the alcoholics itself. They make their relations with other people worse and this is not good for anyone. It would only affects their status in society.
I took the side of 'NO' just to say that it is not good for alcoholics to go to social gatherings and drink there. They would indulge in continuous drinking and just make fun of themselves in front of everyone.
